Wow. Ready Player Two just came out, and just like the first one, my feed is already thick with folks aggressively saying "This book is bad" "Cline is a terrible writer" etc. The purpose of such posts seems to be to discourage people from reading RP2, or shame those who do so.

I've always been curious why people seem so eager to bash RP1/RP2 (and Cline) in particular. I found RP1 entertaining but not amazing. I'll probably think the same of RP2. But I remain baffled as to why people seem so gleefully proud of hating on these books. What inspires that?

I mean, there are (subjectively) worse books out there, and authors who are far more toxic. Yet no one seems interested in piling on those folks or books.

Can anyone shed light on why these books inspire such eager/gleeful mockery?